Bowers & Wilkins today officially announces a new premium over-ear headphone: the Px7 S3. It replaces the Px7 S2 and competes with Sony's XM5 and Bose's QuietComfort Ultra. Available today for over €400, it comes in three colors. Here's what we thought of it.
At Bowers & Wilkins, you have speakers, like the famous Signature and Zeppelin, earphones, like the Pi8 that we recently tested, and headphones. The British brand has been designing over-ear models since 2010. The first was called the P5. It was followed by the P3 in 2012 and the P7 in 2013. In 12 years, Bowers & Wilkins has developed around ten headphones, always with the premium orientation that we know from TWS earphones.
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And this strategy is found again this year with the arrival of a new model that will be positioned between the Px8 and the Px7 S2e, both released in 2023. This new model is called the Px7 S3. And it is above all an evolution of the Px7 S2e, even if the brand claims that the experience offered by the Px7 S3 is close to the Px8. A technological, ergonomic and… price rapprochement. Indeed, the Px7 S3 is launched today, April 24, 2025, at a price of 429 euros. That is 70 euros less than the Px8.
The Px7 S3 benefits from a new, refined and more intuitive design
What are the developments of the Px7 S3? First of all, ergonomically, the two "ears" of the headset have been refined. A thinner structure also means fewer materials: the Px7 S3 is thinner than its predecessor, while retaining the same solid construction. There are now three colors: black, white, and "indigo" blue, which you can see in our photos. The finish of the plastic structure imitates brushed metal.
Another big change is that the control buttons have been relocated. They are no longer on the edge of the earpiece, but on the earpiece support, closer to the handle. In addition, some buttons are differentiated to be more easily recognizable by touch. Of course, the parts in contact with the head remain interchangeable, whether it's the ears or the headband.
Bowers & Wilkins significantly modernizes the Px7 S3
Technically, the Px7 S3 uses the two 40 mm transducers of the Px7 S2e. They are combined with a dedicated amplifier that provides better frequency separation. The headphones are ANC compatible, of course, and can be used as a hands-free kit. Each side of the headphones now has 4 microphones instead of 3. All the microphones are used for voice pickup and noise reduction. A rather slight reduction, compared to Bose and Sony, to "avoid distorting the music," the brand explains.
Inside the headphones, you'll find a Snapdragon Sound processor that not only provides Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity, but also compatibility with the aptX codec suite in addition to SBC and AAC. The headphones are Swift Pair compatible, like the Pi8: they can be connected to two devices simultaneously and switching between them is automatic. On the battery side, Bowers & Wilkins promises 30 hours of listening time with ANC enabled and, for charging, 7 hours of use obtained in just 15 minutes.
The brand also announces improvements that will arrive thanks to a firmware update to be released in June 2025. This update will bring spatial audio (which is not intended to be surround, but spatialized stereo listening), Bluetooth LE compatibility and Auracast support. Support for the LC3 codec is also promised, but will not arrive immediately.
The Px7 S3 will have to make a place for itself against strong competition
At 429 euros, the Px7 S3 comes in direct competition with the XM5, released by Sony in 2022 and which remains one of the benchmarks for closed headphones. But that's not all. At this price (or even a little cheaper), you can also treat yourself to a very good pair of headphones from JBL (Tour One M2), Marshall (Monitor III ANC), Bose (QuietComfort Ultra), Bang & Olufsen (BeoPlay HX), Sennheiser (Momentum 4 Wireless), or Beats (Studio Pro).
However, the Px7 S3 has some nice assets in its favor: a unique musical signature and excellent comfort (which we will have to test over longer listening sessions). The latter is even better than with the Px7 S2e, also present during this hands-on. Let's also not forget the B&O Music application, which integrates a complete and customizable equalizer and whose compatibility with the most popular music services is gradually expanding. We will of course have the opportunity to test these headphones in more detail on Phonandroid.
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